tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post3660629822348423542..comments2024-03-27T01:28:28.346-07:00Comments on False Machine: In comes Ipjamesstuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-23914127776042602572016-10-18T05:26:18.316-07:002016-10-18T05:26:18.316-07:00Some mummer's troops are still active today. A...Some mummer's troops are still active today. A friend of mine is a member of one of them. <br /><br />The basic mummer's play structure is very simple: St George has a fight with Bold Slasher (sometimes called The Turkish Knight), Bold Slasher loses, the doctor cures him, a bunch of weirdos turn up in funny costumes reciting doggerel gibberish, and then the whole troupe demands money from the audience. One might plausibly see this as reflection of ancient (and possibly pagan) patterns of life, death, and rebirth, linked to the passage of the seasons. Depends how generous you're feeling, I guess.<br /><br />What I like about them is the weird Chinese-whispers-style variation you see when you compare a bunch of them, bearing witness to a long process of oral transmission. So St George can become King George; sometimes Bold Slasher and the Turkish Knight are two different people (and sometimes Bold Slasher is on St George's side), sometimes St George is the one who loses the fight and has to be healed by the doctor, and so on. <br /><br />In one particularly weird example (from Somerset), St George has become King George who has become King George The Third, and he fights against 'The Black Prince of Paradise', a being who appears to be halfway between a demon and a folk-memory of the American Revolutionary War: he boasts that 'my head is made of cannon-balls', and King George III calls him 'thou black and American dog'. It's a wonderfully confused mixture of folk history, folk religion, local tradition, and just sheer random weirdness. <br /><br />You can find a big archive of mummer's plays and similar folk plays here: http://www.folkplay.info/index.htm.Joseph Manolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-81777479284191181952016-10-18T03:40:28.222-07:002016-10-18T03:40:28.222-07:00Very interesting.
Thanks for sharing this!Very interesting.<br /><br />Thanks for sharing this!Parvel Shunkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11797860937349949157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-84637576411227135162016-10-17T11:35:56.456-07:002016-10-17T11:35:56.456-07:00Not at batshit crazy as the wirral of your last po...Not at batshit crazy as the wirral of your last post, but we've been having an Oldhammer mini-campaign with the wirral as its setting. My favourite discovery so far is that there were barrows known locally as "the bonks" which were destroyed to make way for Birkhenhead Park.<br /><br />http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/battle-report-despoliation-of-wirheal.htmlrobotforadayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05302954722308521390noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-61417916478860617102016-10-17T11:12:45.779-07:002016-10-17T11:12:45.779-07:00That's not bad....That's not bad....pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-79164640639236666342016-10-17T10:54:11.713-07:002016-10-17T10:54:11.713-07:00At the risk of being too obvious, if King George i...At the risk of being too obvious, if King George is Winter and Bold Slasher is Summer, wouldn't Little Wit who introduces Winter be Autumn and Doctor Brown who revives Summer be Spring?Joshua Macyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10838733328132877699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-64725519942519881652016-10-17T10:52:17.471-07:002016-10-17T10:52:17.471-07:00Not sure about interpretations but the characters ...Not sure about interpretations but the characters would make a great NPC party in a game.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-23385787169605577042016-10-17T10:01:11.109-07:002016-10-17T10:01:11.109-07:00I have been seeing a resurgence as of late with Mu...I have been seeing a resurgence as of late with Mummers in weird fiction. I first saw it in Timothy Jarvis' The Wanderer, then it was used to great effect in Andrew Micheal Hurley's The Loney and just recently in DP Watt's collection Almost Insentient, Almost Divine there's a story that makes brilliant use of it as well. I'm sure Jung would have a field day. ;-)acep halehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12347748097801595563noreply@blogger.com